How is your customer service?

How is your customer service?

I am amazed at how bad customer service still is, even in this poor business environment. Recently I was going out of town for about two weeks so I took my dogs to the vet to have them stay there. My dogs, which are pictured below, are great dogs.

Marty and his daughter Lily with his dogs Rudy (Goldendoodle) and Sammy (Shitzu)

Sammy is a Shitzu and Rudy is a Golden Doodle. They love going to the vet and the vet loves them. But the vet needs to get some new people working for them. When I called to ask if they could wait till 12:02 as I was running late and they close for lunch for 2 hours, you’d have thought I asked for their first born. When I got there, I was so mad at them and the rude treatment I received at the counter that I wanted to leave. But the vet isn’t that way at all; my wife loves the place; and I was on my way to the airport. For what we pay to keep the dogs there, they should have been happy to see me.

But it’s not just this vet where I see poor service; I see it everywhere. I see people who seem to be upset a lot at work and it is rubbing clients the wrong way and sending them elsewhere. And so, if you think about that, in terms of our businesses, that’s great for you and me. It’s a chance for all of us to stand out, in a good way, just by doing the little things.

I could go on and on for hours about all the little things you ought to do to please your clients; let me just tell you two. Be nice and be responsive, that’s it. Friendly people who show their clients they care and take care of them promptly are destined to stand out and be successful in the process. A client is never bothering us; they are trying to help us make our business work. Sure, some clients can be trouble and you do need to tell them to find someone else. But most are not. I fear the stresses of running a business in this tough environment are making a lot of us blow things out of proportion and spill out our stress on to others.

This week, make sure you haven’t fallen into a rut and take a look at how you’re treating your clients. It doesn’t take much to make them go somewhere else and it doesn’t take much to impress them either.